ess, as to invest industry, and
frugality, and all the other plain and unpretending virtues of humble life
with a sort of poetic charm which has been the means of commending them in
the most effectual manner, to millions of his countrymen. At length,
having accomplished in this field a work equal to the labor of any
ordinary life-time, he was by a sudden shifting of the scene in the drama
of his life, as it were, withdrawn from it, at once and entirely, and
ushered into a wholly different sphere. During all the latter half of his
life he was almost exclusively a public man. He was brought forward by a
peculiar combination of circumstances into a most conspicuous position; a
position, which not only made him the object of interest and attention to
the whole civilized world, but which also invested him with a controlling
power in respect to some of the most important events and transactions of
modern times. Thus there lived, as it were, two Benjamin Franklins,
Benjamin Franklin the honest Philadelphia printer, who quietly prosecuted
his trade during the first part of the eighteenth century, setting an
example of industry and thrift which was destined afterward to exert an
influence over half the world--and Benjamin Franklin the great American
statesman, who flourished in the last part of the same century, and
occupied himself in building and securing the foundations of what will
perhaps prove the greatest political power that any human combination has
ever formed. It is this latter history which is to form the subject of the
present article.

It is remarkable that the first functions which Franklin fulfilled in
public life were of a military character. When he found that his thrift
and prosperity as a citizen, and the integrity and good sense which were
so conspicuous in his personal character, were giving him a great
ascendency among his fellow men, he naturally began to take an interest in
the welfare of the community; and when he first began to turn his
attention in earnest to this subject, which was about the year 1743, there
were two points which seemed to him to demand attention. One was, the want
of a college in Philadelphia; the other, the necessity of some means of
defense against foreign invasion. Spain had been for some time at war with
England, and now France had joined with Spain in prosecuting the war. The
English colonies in America were in imminent danger of being attacked by
the French forces. The influenc